Since becoming a national media figure, Jack Cafferty has become known for this kind of Howard Beale-meets-Abe Simpson venting, and last night’s rant was vintage Cafferty. He blasted Bachmann’s promise of $2 gasoline, called Perry and Bachmann “whackjobs,” and derided “former half-term dropout governor of Alaska” Sarah Palin by sarcastically calling her a “Mensa member.”

Cafferty went on to praise candidates like Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Jon Huntsman as examples of “the other end of the intellectual spectrum.”

Part of Cafferty’s critique had to do with the amount of attention being given to “Larry, Curly, and Moe” (as he calls Perry, Bachmann, and Palin), but people like Jon Huntsman have been getting tons of air (especially compared with his poll numbers) for trying to inject some sanity into the proceedings, to little effect. Cafferty can’t hang this on the media, but he’s dead-on when he asks why Americans are “allergic to brains.”

It’s tempting to see this as a strictly conservative problem (their contempt for academia and journalism certainly enabled it), but the media and the Democratic establishment have long played along with the modern American idea that intellect is a political liability. Many would trace the phenomenon to the Al Gore–George W. Bush race, but this “who would you rather drink a beer with?” garbage has been around for as long as I can remember.

The silver lining to Cafferty’s critique is that the American allergy to brains will become a significant asset when the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse arrives.